News and Comment

The latest news and commentary from the Electoral Reform Society.

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The government is still dominated by men

As the dust settles on the Government reshuffle, you would be forgiven for thinking that the genders are now fairly represented on the front benches. Nothing could be further from the truth. Despite this week’s high-profile...

Posted 17 Jul 2014

Women and Scottish independence

This blog was first posted on Engender As the date of the referendum draws ever nearer, and the gender gap in the polls shows no sign of closing, there seem to be more events targeting women...

Posted 03 Jul 2014

A bad week for women

What a dispiriting week for women. Following Maria Miller’s resignation, just three out of 22 Cabinet ministers are females – putting the UK government at a 15-year low and near rock bottom in comparison with...

Posted 11 Apr 2014

Just three out of 22 Cabinet ministers are females

What a dispiriting week for women. Following Maria Miller’s resignation, just three out of 22 Cabinet ministers are females – putting the UK government at a 15-year low and near rock bottom in comparison with...

Posted 11 Apr 2014

Only one in five ministers are female

In 2009, David Cameron pledged that a third of his ministers would be women. But even today, after a reshuffle which has increased the number of women in government by three, still only one in five ministers...

Posted 08 Oct 2013

The 300 women ‘missing’ from Welsh public life

It’s International Women’s Day. And it seemed the right time to show just how badly women are faring in Welsh public life. Our Welsh Power Report assesses the levels of women across politics and public life,...

Posted 07 Mar 2013

Where are the women in local government?

At first glance, UK local government statistics aren’t exactly the most exciting topic for a blog. But they’re really important as they give us an insight into gender and politics in the UK today. The...

Posted 25 Feb 2013

Cameron’s broken promise on Women’s representation

Women’s representation in government has always appeared to matter to the Prime Minister. Back in his 2005 acceptance speech as leader David Cameron spoke of the need to end the “scandalous under-representation of women” in...

Posted 09 Sep 2012

A bold step forward for women’s representation

Ireland currently ranks 87 in the world for gender representation in politics with just 15.1% of Irish parliamentarians being women. This means in the world league tables Ireland lags behind Iraq, Burkina Faso and Turkmenistan...

Posted 23 Jul 2012